Top 3 Soccer Bot Designs at FIRST Nationals

Team 67The HOT (Heroes of Tomorrow) Team scooted into the semifinals, chosen by an alliance leader for its robot's precise kicker, among other skills. The secret to this control? A modified garage-door spring connects to both the kicker and the side of the robot. Because the spring isn't reliant on how much force it's going to apply, the team can program it using a potentiometer that brings a shifter back to specific settings after each kick. This way, the team always knows just how far the ball is going to go and, even better, they can control the specific distance of each kick.The team usually starts by kicking in the farthest zone from the goal in autonomous mode, then drives over one of the two large speed bumps to get midfield, then kicks again. Without driver control, the bot can kick about four of the starting five balls into the home zone and sometimes two or three into a goal before students take over the reins."It really helps so the part of the team in the home zone can quickly get those balls into goals to score points at the start of the game," senior Ryan Legato says.

Offense

Offense

Team 67

The HOT (Heroes of Tomorrow) Team scooted into the semifinals, chosen by an alliance leader for its robot's precise kicker, among other skills. The secret to this control? A modified garage-door spring connects to both the kicker and the side of the robot. Because the spring isn't reliant on how much force it's going to apply, the team can program it using a potentiometer that brings a shifter back to specific settings after each kick. This way, the team always knows just how far the ball is going to go and, even better, they can control the specific distance of each kick.

The team usually starts by kicking in the farthest zone from the goal in autonomous mode, then drives over one of the two large speed bumps to get midfield, then kicks again. Without driver control, the bot can kick about four of the starting five balls into the home zone and sometimes two or three into a goal before students take over the reins.

"It really helps so the part of the team in the home zone can quickly get those balls into goals to score points at the start of the game,” senior Ryan Legato says.

Defense

Defense

Team 469

Las Guerrillas team crafted one of the most unique robots in the competition: The top portion of the bot, composed of "guides" that resembled something akin to metal bowling-ball racks, helped the team win the Xerox-sponsored Creativity Award. Built just a week before the first match, the guides also helped make the robot an irresistible alliance-mate for defensive play.

Here's how the robot works: In autonomous mode, the bot maneuvers its way from midfield into a tunnel facing its goals. Once inside a tunnel, the bot uses two latches to grab the lower bar of the tunnel so no other bot can shove it aside or muscle it out. This effectively blocks the tunnel from navigation, protecting its home zone from invaders. It then uses the guides, made of 0.035-inch metal tubing, to catch balls rolling toward the tower from the ball return—the mechanism for getting balls back on the field after scoring—and shepherd them in the direction of one of the team's goals. By switching a flipper on and off, team members can decide where on the field to direct the ball.

"We came up with the guides by accident," says sophomore Amith Diwaker, explaining that a chance bounce off the speed bump and into the goal during practice gave them the inspiration for redirecting the ball. "We started prototyping, and bam, it's out there," he says.